A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge is allowing former county administrator Mark Uffer to go forward with his wrongful termination lawsuit, finding that he has enough cause to argue that he was dismissed for cooperating with law enforcement.

When Colonies Partners first sued San Bernardino County in 2002 over flood-control improvements on its Upland development, they faced a Board of Supervisors unwilling to settle the dispute, recently released grand jury transcripts show.

Over the objections of every lawyer who ever handled the Colonies case for San Bernardino County, Supervisors Bill Postmus and Paul Biane pushed for a settlement even though they lacked any legal basis, court documents show.

How can I vote for someone who opposes nearly every substantive government reform measure I have pledged to support or fought to enact? What kind of message does it send to the people who elected me if I endorse a person who repeatedly worked to sabotage my efforts to fulfill promises made to these very same voters?

The people who elected me are tired of “go along to get along, business as usual” politics in San Bernardino County.

A San Bernardino Superior Court Judge has ordered former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer to return thousands of county e-mails and documents he has had in his possession since being fired in November 2009.

Just last year, San Bernardino County leaders were seriously considering purchasing all or part of San Bernardino’s half-vacant Carousel Mall and using the land for a new county government center.

But that won’t be happening, at least not anytime soon. In April, county leaders told the mall’s main owners, Lynwood-based developer Placo San Bernardino LLC, that the county was no longer interested in the property, county spokesman David Wert said Tuesday.

A federal investigation into allegations that various current and former San Bernardino County officials received special “V.I.P.” care at county-owned and operated Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) has many people asking one big question.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center for at least two years waived or reduced copayments and deductibles for hospital and San Bernardino County employees, hospital-affiliated doctors and others.

The discounts were allowed under a policy dated May 23, 2008, and signed by hospital Chief Financial Officer Frank Arambula. San Bernardino County Administrative Officer Greg Devereaux ended the practice in April after he discovered it never received required approval from the county Board of Supervisors.

A raid at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center by FBI agents and district attorney’s investigators is the latest in a series of controversies that have vexed the county hospital in Colton in the last year.

Authorities have refused to divulge specifics of the investigation, leaving the public and San Bernardino County officials wondering why a plethora of documents were seized from the hospital on Thursday.

Federal and San Bernardino County investigators Thursday served a search warrant at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and spent the day removing boxes filled with documents from the hospital’s administrative offices.

Investigators from the county district attorney’s public integrity unit and FBI executed the search warrant, officials said.

Last week we published a story here at InlandPolitics.com on San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller-Recorder-Tax Collector Larry Walker’s hiring and subsequent promotion of Matt Brown to be his second-in-command.

A position for which Brown possesses no apparent qualification to hold.

“I am always troubled when the publicity regarding a case exceeds the evidence,” Levenson said. “It creates these incredibly high expectations, and it’s very damaging to the defendants, and we don’t even know if the evidence will support the charges.”

San Bernardino County’s former administrative officer, fired in November, cooked up a sneaky plan to defer his salary in a new position so he could take full advantage of county taxpayers. Luckily, his plan was foiled; he didn’t even get the job.

San Bernardino County has rejected an offer to settle a civil lawsuit filed by former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer for $3.5 million.

Uffer, who was fired from his job as the county’s top administrator in November, sued the county in May, alleging he was fired for cooperating with state and local prosecutors in a corruption probe of a legal settlement between the county and a Rancho Cucamonga developer in November 2006.

San Bernardino County supervisors Tuesday rejected an offer to settle a lawsuit by its former top administrator who has accused the county of firing him for cooperating with corruption investigations.

Mark Uffer, who lost his job as county administrative officer in November 2009, sought a $3.5 million payment plus medical and life insurance benefits for himself and his family, according to an Aug. 27 letter from his attorney released by the county.

Former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer’s job as chief executive officer of the Colorado River Medical Center in Needles hinges on whether the hospital’s board of directors approves a new contract Uffer is proposing.

Uffer announced last week he had been offered the job by hospital board member Linda Kidd, subject to him entering into a written contract with the hospital. He spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week touring the hospital and getting to know its staff and the issues in most immediate need of fixing there.

The attorney representing former San Bernardino County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer in a lawsuit says he will ask the court to compel Supervisor Paul Biane to give a deposition if one isn’t scheduled soon.

Sanford Kassel is pushing forward in the lawsuit, and the county has scheduled 11 depositions over the next 30 days.

Eleven San Bernardino County employees and elected officials are scheduled to give depositions this month in relation to a lawsuit filed by former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer.

The scheduled depositions are subject to change. County spokesman David Wert is one of them. He said his scheduled deposition Sept. 28 falls on the day of a Board of Supervisors meeting, and he’ll have to reschedule.

Former San Bernardino County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer said he’s been offered a job as CEO of the Colorado River Medical Center in Needles.

Uffer, who is suing the county over his November firing by a majority of the county Board of Supervisors, said he’s working out the details of his contract with the hospital and plans to accept the position at the 25-bed hospital.

A story published yesterday by Sharon Gilbert at iePolitics.com revealed that ousted former San Bernardino County administrative officer Mark Uffer is under consideration for the position of chief executive officer for Colorado River Medical Center in Needles.

A lawsuit filed against San Bernardino County by its former administrative officer was dealt a heavy blow on Monday.

Former county administrative officer Mark Uffer, who was dismissed without cause last year by the Board of Supervisors, sued the county earlier this year alleging his firing was in retaliation for his “whistle blowing” activities against his employers.

So is our illustrious San Bernardino Board of Supervisors up to stupid again? We hope not. But we won’t know for sure until Tuesday’s meeting. BOS agenda item No. 16 has left us scratching our heads. This board item approves new,2-year contracts with all of the various medical providers for Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC), with the exception of the Anesthesia contract, which is extended six months.

This is my first full budget cycle as the newest member of the Board of Supervisors. As a candidate, many people approached me to provide insight into the workings of San Bernardino County government. As a newly elected supervisor, many more provided their perspective and painted their colorful pictures. However, I was determined to educate myself and observe the inner workings firsthand so that I could arrive at my own conclusions instead of being influenced by the biases of others.

SAN BERNARDINO • Six months after he was suddenly fired without cause, the former top executive of San Bernardino County is suing the county for wrongful termination.

Former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer on Wednesday filed a lawsuit alleging that county supervisors and their top staffers retaliated against him for his cooperation with the county grand jury and District Attorney’s office.

San Bernardino County’s former top administrator filed a wrongful termination lawsuit Wednesday, accusing supervisors of firing him in November because he was cooperating with corruption investigations.

The complaint was filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court a month after the county rejected an April 1 claim by former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer seeking $15 million in damages.

Former San Bernardino County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer filed a lawsuit against the county on Wednesday alleging whistleblower retaliation for cooperating in an ongoing corruption probe with state and local prosecutors.

Uffer alleges his termination occurred one week after he met with the Grand Jury to discuss questionable use of county-issued credit cards by Mark Kirk, chief of staff for Supervisor Gary Ovitt, and Brian Johsz, Ovitt’s district director.

Employees are starting to give a glimpse at just how cover-ups and vicious politics override patient care priorities at San Bernardino County-owned and operated Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC).

Threatening physicians, profiteering, and strong-arming have become commonplace at the struggling hospital.

“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both. — Eleanor Roosevelt”

So far in this series we have discussed the District Attorney’s office and the Conflict Panel. There are three other components to justice, or the lack thereof, in San Bernardino County: the Public Defender, the Sheriff’s Department, and the Superior Court bench. Today, we will discuss the office of the Public Defender.

As a child growing up with a mother who prescribed to old-fashioned thoughts about medical care, I was always told never to allow doctors to operate on cancer because exposing cancer cells to air would cause them to grow exponentially. Of course, today we know how to use surgery to cure an otherwise fatal tumor.

Several years ago all of Southern California watched the crisis at the Los Angeles County-run King-Drew Medical Center. If history can predict the future, we have a similar, fatal cancer growing at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) that needs to be excised fully and quickly.

Sometimes I really wonder who is the worst lawyer, District Attorney Mike Ramos or County Counsel Ruth Stringer. From Ramos we have learned that the Constitution of the United States is not applicable in San Bernardino County, at least not in connection with political enemies. And County Counsel Ruth Stringer has taught us that copulation involving public resources is covered by the “deliberative process” and therefore not subject to review, not that we wanted to review the copulation, only the expenditures attached thereto.

﻿﻿Evidence is surfacing that a major cover-up is in progress at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC). Allegations surfaced months ago that San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Second District Supervisor Paul Biane and Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales received extensive free medical care at ARMC. A complaint has been filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) alleging Form 700 violations due to the fact that these supervisors, along with former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer, received free medical care, which constitutes a gift of public funds, and did not report said gifts as required by law on their Form 700s.

Yesterday we witnessed something at the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors session that we don’t see often. Subordinates of a sort spoke out against their administrator. Dr. John Steinmann, an orthopedic spine surgeon, and Dr. Keyvan Safdari, an anesthesiologist, both spoke of heavy handedness and retaliation by Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) Medical Director, Dr. Dev Gnanadev.

Steinmann indicated to the members of the Board of Supervisors that patient care is suffering as a result of Gnanadev’s leadership. As we have discussed here repeatedly, retaliation is the name of the game at ARMC, a practice likely initiated and certainly promulgated by former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer. And now we learn it is more true than we realized.

The chief of staff to San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane has been placed on paid administrative leave, after claiming this week that he was being harassed and retaliated against for cooperating in an ongoing corruption probe.

Matt Brown’s leave became official Tuesday when the county launched an investigation into his allegations, county spokesman David Wert said Wednesday.

Just when we think the corruption scandal involving the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors can’t possibly get better, it always does. The most recent revelation is from Second District Chief of Staff, Matt Brown. He confessed on Monday to being one of the informants against his boss, Supervisor Paul Biane.

I was spending some time over the last few days giving some thought to former County Administrative Officer (CAO) Mark Uffer’s teaching job at California State University, San Bernardino and came up with some more appropriate courses I believe should be instituted at the school.

Uffer is currently assigned to teach PA 664 – Management of Public Organizations, a graduate level course.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) continues to be the subject of numerous investigations and inquiries. The hospital, once a shining star in our county, has lost its luster in wake of accusations of mismanagement, malpractice, patient abuse, and fraud. Much of the controversy involves the empire-building by former County Administrative Office Mark Uffer and ARMC Medical Director Dr. Dev Gnanadev.

Both men are known for their tyrannical control of every aspect of hospital operations, with Gnanadev even running roughshod over the always-despotic Uffer.

The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) complaints against San Bernardino County Second District Supervisor Paul Biane, Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales, and former County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer have been resubmitted as it did not appear, based on their response, that the FPPC understood the basis of the first complaint.

On April 19, 2010, I submitted a complaint to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit regarding former County Administrative Office Mark Uffer.

The complaint states:

The undersigned alleges that while employed as the Administrative Officer for the county of San Bernardino, Uffer received thousands of dollars of memorabilia that was gifted to him due to his position as a government official.

I had call from a reporter for a local newspaper yesterday. During the converstaion an interesting discussion ensued over the recently submitted claim against the county by former San Bernardino County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer.